Background

The journey actually began in 1978 or so when Dave cobbled together some "necessities" in a VW bus, circa 1965.  This was driven by the fact that Barby had emphatically stated that there was no way she was going to go fishing/camping in Alaska with the bears in a tent.  

From that humble beginning we graduated to a Winnebago Sportsmen's Den.  It was 24' (maybe - might have been 26') long Class C (motorhome body on a van chassis -- bed over the driver/passenger area) motorhome.  When we left Anchorage July 5th, 1981, we headed for Seattle pulling our 1975 VW Rabbit.  That trip deserves a web page of its own, but let your imagination run.   We arrived in Seattle about August 13 with big grins and the beginning of the thought that this might be a fun lifestyle.

Fast forward through a 31' Airstream travel trailer that we had from about 1986 to probably 1990,  to May 1998 when we moved out of our house (with a foundation) and into our 33' Mountain Aire 5th wheel trailer, our Road Abode.  We found a great place to park and live in Auburn, WA,  for a year until we retired in May of 1999. 

The next month we had a rather drastic change of plans, and that's when Moby Dick (the medium duty truck) began to become a part of our life.  You see, when we pulled the trailer "home" from the dealer, we discovered that it really was pretty heavy for our 1987 Ford F250 diesel truck.  Even with the additions of: Banks Turbocharger, Air Bag assisted suspension, modified fuel pump and injectors, and a whole bunch of other modifications.  Even though we had the trailer built with tandem dual wheel axles so we'd have enough braking power, and were still confident we'd be OK, it so happened that we were essentially illegal.  Overweight.  The manufacturer of the truck (Ford) gave it a rating considerably less than the weight of our trailer.  Dave has an unreasonable fear of the plaintiff's attorney, the flashing blue lights behind him, and the insurance adjuster who uses the words "gross negligence."  That's when we started to talk seriously about medium duty trucks.

Medium duty trucks were a good news/bad news conversation for us.  In order to be able to afford one we'd have to work an extra year.  Neither of us particularly wanted to do that, but neither of us hated our jobs, so it was OK.  The people we talked to who owned them had bought them essentially for the same reason we were considering them.  Over the next year or so, much research was done.  We looked at the UD, Freightliner, and International.  These three seemed to be the most popular.  We ruled out the UD early on because of what seemed to us to be difficult engine access, and lack of 4 doors.  There is a Freightliner dealer in Pacific, WA, about 5 or 6 miles from where we were parked in Auburn, and the salesman there was just super.  We liked him immediately, and he put up with Dave's endless questions and frequent visits without making either Barb or Dave feel guilty.

A trip to Cannon Beach, OR,  in our slide-in truck camper included a stop in Springfield, OR, where we test drove the International. Brian Kelly at Stalick Intenational had been selling these kinds of trucks for some time, and had developed a body for the truck that really appealed to Dave (lots of room for tools and stuff), and Barb really liked the flat floor inside the cab and the room under the back seat -- which she quickly named off limits to Dave -- who can squirrel away an amazing amount of "stuff" in any available space.

The "extra" year ended for Dave on Feb. 25, 2000, and Barby got free May, 19,2000, after 31 years of working for the Federal Government.  The last 15 years with HUD, but that's another story in itself.

Moby Dick (the truck) became a reality and came to live with us on March 2, 2000.

Heading to Springfield, OR, from Tacoma, WA, on the Amtrak to pick up the truck.

Didn't take Barby long to find which seat was the most fun.

Brian gave the driving instructions as, "D is for drive and R is for reverse, and, (an emphatic dictate to Dave - having become well acquainted by now) DON'T MESS WITH 'MY' TRUCK.  Have fun".  And we've been having fun ever since.

The "shakedown" trip was a short one from Auburn to Copalis Beach with friends Steve and Sharon Wilkins, who incidentally bought our Ford truck and camper.

Any true RV'er knows you can't go anywhere without a visit to Camping World, and we're no different.

That's Mount Rainier in the background, and Dave has decided to study up a bit about digital photography!

With Steve and Sharon following along behind reminding Dave to watch his corners and then camped alongside, the trip to Copalis Beach (one of the Sunrise Resorts parks) was made much easier. 

Deciding a little warmth and sunshine was in order, the next shakedown included some hills, and we went over the mountains to Moses Lake, Pier 4 campground, another of Sunrise Resorts campgrounds..

Now the date on this picture is a little out of whack (should be 4/29/2000) because Dave managed to drop the camera and, fortunately, all that apparently went wrong was that the memory got jarred and the camera forgot what day and what time it was.

 We'd let the awning out thinking it might be fun, but the wind scared us enough that we quickly rolled it back up.  At least it was out long enough to dry.  The wet pavement here was the result of having the sprinklers run for an hour or so.  Real treat for those of us from the "wet side" of the state.

Well, what can we say.  Is there ever such a thing as too many toys?  These little rascals are made by DiBlasi and they fold up, go into their little bags, and live in the front of the trailer! (30 mph & 90 mpg)

And what the heck, if we're talking about toys.........

Now I ask you.  Have you ever seen anything uglier?  Look out!  I was talking about the boat!!  Porta-Bote has been building folding boats for 25 years or so, and when we sold our 12' aluminum boat it seem natural to replace it with a 12' folding boat.  Only after we got the truck we (Dave did -- Barby already knew it) discovered that it wouldn't fit on top of either the truck or the trailer.  Sold it, and this is the 8' version.  49 pounds, rides happily on top of the truck, and by the end of this week (5/26/00) should have its own bag to hide in to help keep off some of the road crud.

Gonna quit here and see if I can figure out how to get this on the web.  If successful, we'll make improvements, changes and additions as we go and keep you up to date as much as possible.  In the meantime, feel free to write us at: daveandbarbj(at)etcetera4.net.  You'll have to replace the (at) with the @ of course.  Sorry, but we're avoiding spam as best we can.